#996 2/23/20 – This Week: “West Bank” Isn’t a Synonym for “Judea-Samaria”; It’s an Antonym

WHILE YOU STAND ON ONE LEG: We have yet another example this week of a Good Guy who recognizes the power of words himself using a term that belittles us.  And with the new “Deal of The Century” battling with the UN’s new “blacklist” of companies dealing in Judea-Samaria, on the heels of 2334, the EU’s labeling decree, and the Reform and Conservatives’ letter to Trump, all treating the ‘green line’ as among the Holy Land’s holy places, now’s not the time for we ourselves to call Judea-Samaria “the West Bank.”

This Week:  “West Bank” Isn’t a Synonym for “Judea-Samaria”; It’s an Antonym

Jason Greenblatt, who had a big hand in President Trump’s “Deal of The Century,” was quoted extensively in a Jerusalem Post article last weekend, Greenblatt: Palestinians’ Aspirations Don’t Equal Their Rights (2/13/20), on Palestinian Arabs’ and others’ reactions to the plan.  He also commented on a subject central to the campaign of this mostly “media watch,” dirty words in Arab-Israeli conflict discourse.  He came out against “settlements” and “occupation”:

“Greenblatt also came out against the use of the term ‘settlers’ and ‘settlements,’ saying those who use it mean it pejoratively.

“‘They’re towns.  Call them what they are.  It holds back peace to describe them with words that have political overtones.  You can say West Bank or Judea and Samaria.  But they’re not settlers; they’re Israelis.  It’s not occupied territory – that’s a false term,’ he stated.”

Give Mr. Greenblatt, who is indubitably one of the Good Guys, a two-out-of-three.  “Settlers-settlements” and “occupied territory” are indubitably dirty words.  But “West Bank” isn’t a synonym for “Judea and Samaria.”  It’s an antonym.  Talk about “words that have political overtones,” it would be hard to think of one with deeper such connotations than “West Bank.”

The mainstream western media, not among the Good Guys, revels in relegating “Judea and Samaria” to “the biblical name for the West Bank.”  New York Times, 2/1/17, “the biblical name for the West Bank”; AP, 2/6/17, “a biblical name for the West Bank”; Los Angeles Times, “the biblical names for the West Bank.”

But Israeli blogger Yisrael Medad caught the Washington Post referring on 10/10/17 to the “West Bank, which most Israelis refer to as Judea and Samaria.”  And see Christian Science Monitor, 9/29/09: “the northern West Bank (known in Israel as Samaria),” and “the southern West Bank (known as Judea).”

And here’s how the United Nations (bless it) referenced that part of Palestine in its partition resolution in 1947:  “The boundary of the hill country of Samaria and Judea starts on the Jordan River ….”   Yes, Judea and Samaria are Hebrew-origin biblical names, but they remained in use all through the centuries.  I cite in my Jews’ continuous-presence book, Israel 3000 Years, a Christian pilgrim who came in 1102 on the heels of the Crusaders referencing “the region called Judea” between the Jordan and Sea.  I show in our Powerpoint talk a 1791 map showing “Judea” and “Samaria.”

“Words with political overtones”?  Israel Ambassador Yoram Ettinger, Israel Hayom, 12/16/11:

“In April 1950, the Jordanian occupation renamed Judea/Samaria as ‘the West Bank’ to assert Jordanian rule and to expunge Jewish connection to the cradle of Jewish history.  Until 1950, all official Ottoman, British and prior records referred to ‘Judea and Samaria’ and not to the ‘West Bank.’”

Reminds you, doesn’t it, of the Romans renaming Judaea as “Palestine,” after the long-gone Philistines, to disassociate what had been Jewish from Jews.  I cite in my book scholars saying that the post-Revolts homeland Jews, our ancestors, refused to use the Romans’ new names for the homeland and its places.

The mainstream media loves to contrast “Arab villages” with “Israeli settlements.” E.g., New York Times photo caption 2/14/17: “An Israeli settlement in front of an Arab village in Amona, West Bank.”   And which of these ways of putting it sounds more legitimate to you?  Israel building new homes in “Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank” (Reuters, 3/20/14), or in “Jewish communities in Judea-Samaria”?

This “West Bank” versus “Judea-Samaria” fight is not new, but I think it’s at a critical time.  Trump’s new “Deal of the Century” challenges the wide acceptance by, e.g., the UN (2334 and the new companies’ blacklist), EU (labeling decree), western liberals in general, and the American Reform and Conservative Jewish movements, rabbis and all, that “the green line,” i.e., the 1949 Israel-Jordan exclusively-military ceasefire line, is among the Holy Land’s holy places.  The Deal says, instead, as most Israelis themselves believe, that the Jewish people, by history and the Palestine Mandate, have a legitimate homeland claim to the historic land of Israel, Palestine west of the Jordan, including the Judea-Samaria hill country heartland and historic Jerusalem.  It’s insanity for we ourselves, Greenblatt and all, to belittle this claim by saying “East Jerusalem” and “West Bank,” instead of just “Jerusalem” and “Judea-Samaria.”  So don’t.